John Caldigate

Serialised in 1878-79, this novel follows John Caldigate, a young man who quarrels with his father, sails to the Australian goldfields, and returns rich enough to marry Hester Bolton, a clergyman's sheltered daughter. A woman he knew on the voyage and in New South Wales then claims that he married her there, and he is tried for bigamy. The plot turns on letters, gold, evangelical household tyranny, and the gap between colonial looseness and English respectability. Trollope keeps the legal and marital question open through the trial and its aftermath. It is a story of reputation, evidence, and a marriage placed under public accusation.

Quarter bound in dark brown series binding, pale brown paper boards with the border in dark brown. Pale brown endleaves. Dark brown slipcase.